The proliferation of computing technologies has increased consumer and business reliance on electronic manipulation and processing of a variety of data, including textual, graphic, and image information, on personal computers (PCs) and other computers, and other devices such as web appliances and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Many users now prefer to view as much data as possible electronically, rather than on hard copy. In many cases, consumers and businesses utilize dual monitor or multi-monitor computer configurations to increase the data that can be simultaneously displayed over a viewing area that would otherwise be provided by a traditional one-monitor configuration. For example, a user may desire in some applications to adjacently position a second monitor to the left of the primary monitor, and in others above or below the primary monitor.
Unfortunately, such traditional multi-monitor configurations require users to manually change display configuration features of the computer configuration when they position one or more monitors relative to the location of the primary monitor. These changes to the computer configuration control cursor movement across the display screens of each of the monitors. Such manual changes are inconvenient, often requiring menu navigation that may be confusing to an inexperienced user and tedious for the experienced user. Moreover, such manual changes may result in menu navigation errors or configuration errors, which may compound user frustration and/or reduce the usability and thus the initial advantages of the multi-monitor configurations.
In other scenarios, it may also be convenient for users to work in a configuration where data may be viewed on one or more monitors remotely from the primary monitor. For example, a user may operate a PDA as a second monitor to remotely view and/or control content displayed on the primary monitor. One example of such a configuration includes software licensed under the name MEDIA CENTER from Microsoft Corporation, which permits a remote control to control functions for, among other functions, video recording and playback. Such a configuration permits the user to remotely both operate a computer and view a portion of data being displayed by the computer, and may also permit a client, coworker, or other person to view data on the primary monitor remotely from the user.
Unfortunately, such a configuration requires new software to be developed for each application that the user employs to manipulate data so that, for example, text and images on the remote device are properly sized for use in that application. As one example, MEDIA CENTER required development of a separate application that added features to functions such as MY TV, MY VIDEOS, or PLAYDVD in the operating system Microsoft Corporation licenses under the name WINDOWS XP so that the user can remotely invoke those functions using a remote device. This scenario requires design time and resources and, in many cases, necessitates technical support to assist the user so that the user can effectively use the software.